It's been a while since I posted any game design stuff here but I just finished a set of rules for playing in the dark grimness of the year 4.1 x 10^5 AD.  I don't really know where I'll go with it from here.  I just wanted rules I could run with my friends without laying out $500 and drowning in over built versions of the original system.  There's a few issues here and there.  I think the "gauntlet of annihilation" is under costed by a factor of ten.  00 is undefined for mutations.  I'm not sure it notes that to change careers you just have to buy the stats, skills, and gear for the career.  The careers don't really stack.  A +5 in one career certainly counts towards the one with a+15 but it doesn't give you a +20.

I've got more art I could use but too much of it is proprietary.  I think the picture on page one will probably have to go as it is.

http://www.uncouthsavage.com/uploads/1/3/3/2/133279619/darkerf.pdf

Soldier
   Boots on the ground hold ground.  From the endless legions of the Emperical Realm to the beleaguered colonial defense forces battles are won by the common soldier.
   Grunt
   Connections: Military
   Endurance +5
   Strength +5
   Fighting +5
   Shooting +5
   Attire: Fatigues, Flack Jacket, Auto Rifle, Knife.

I also started coding a computer version. Probably just a fairly random text adventure. Does anyone know it you can use "onKeyDown" without a "input type -'text'" form in javascript?

But again, the more I add to it the more it will move towards being a 40k ripoff.

I could see altering the mechanics a bit further and scrubbing the 40k right out of it. But then I ask "is it still the ship of Theseus or just another new unfinishtd project.

I find myself wanting to lean into the "darker and grimmer" aspect of the idea but that's largely my tendancy to drift away from the original material. I really don't know what to add at this point. A few weapons and vehicles, critters, and maybe art. I've got a lot of sketches that are 40kesque. Part of me thinks that a free project could probably get away with recognizable 40k art but I've got less of that and the idea was to scrub off the serial numbers. And then I think "why not Zoidberg...errr...Galaxies In Shadow" and I'm self aware enough to know what others might answer to that.

But I'm thinking about death ships full of radiation mutants / zombies who set out to escape the dying Earth (as opposed to the Dying Earth) on generation ships with leaky reactors. I'm thinking about a society with a 4 women to 1 man civilian ratio because women can get out of military service by giving up their children to the state for conscription. I'm thinking about the impact centuries of untrammelled 1950s technology and manditory forced population growth would have on ecosystems. The changes small environmental differences might make in the genotype over time and how that might influence ideas of beauty. And how much more interesting that might be than just orcs, dwarves, and elves. What does racism and indeed any ism look like when you can make children to order and eliminate all undesirable traits? I'm thinking what an aristocracy with unbounded license could be without laws or even conscience. What does Melnibone look like if they have access to genetic tampering and mind programming technology? I'm thinking about just how alien aliens could be. Sentient clusters of magnetically charged monofillaments that turn anyone they come in contact with into a fine, pink milkshake.

I'm thinking I could probably get banned from the whole entire internet for writing it.

So, what do people think?  I can see your views so I know I'm not shouting into a vacuum here.  Is it best to tidy it up, add a couple things like assault cannons and let it be as what it is.  Or is it best to leave the forty first millenium behind and strike out some new ground?

I've updated the file with page numbers, a bit more art, and gattling guns.  I think it's basically done now.  If I even get around to running it I might add more material but it's sufficient for my purposes at this point.

Though, thinking more about it, a really dark setting wouldn't look dark and rusty and worn.  Everything would be clean and well maintained.  You wouldn't see the body of the guy who was put to death for making a mistake or slacking off, he'd be obvious by his absence.  Everyone would know what was going on but nobody would talk about it.  People would be fat and well fed and harvested for meat and organs and nobody would say a word.  All the stuff I discussed earlier would be normalized.  You wouldn't be able to find anyone who thought there was a problem because complaining would be a lethal error.  You wouldn't need cameras in the TV because everyone would know that everyone around them would rat out their own mother because they've been raised to believe it is right and proper.  Madeleine L'engel got it right really.  Just that consitent rythmic pulsing rightness in the clean streets and yards with white picket fences.

Cameltoe Republic

   These flat faced alien creatures are almost humanoid.  Their young republic is spreading rapidly.  They are technologically advanced but may have ties to an older advanced civilization that is giving them a hand up for its own insidious purposes.  They may speak of peace and friendship but the truth can be seen in their vast legions war machines.  Their military doctrine is focused on accurate long range fire power and their troops receive virtually no hand to hand combat training.

30   Agility
30   Endurance
20   Empathy
30   Knowledge
30   Perception
30   Reflexes
25   Strength
35   Willpower

Souless
Surefooted

Someone on Facebook suggested Disney should buy Games Workshop.  The movie almost writes itself.  We'll need musical numbers for "My Arms My Arms" and "The Big Guns Never Rest."

Our movie begins with Space Marines fighting Tyranids.  We've got an upbeat Miley Cyrus tune in the background and some funky banter.  They rescue some humans from diabolical flesh machines.  And some of them are females.  The marines are a bit confused and bashful and one of the bolder human females says, "I guess you guys aren't used to dealing with women.  Why don't we ever see any female space marines.  We cue the big show title "WARHAMMER 40000 In Space Nobody Can Hear You Sing"

We pan to an agricultural world.  A precious little blond white girl is giving her mother sass about harvesting the carrotato crop.  The sky darkens and a space hulk drifts across the heavens.  Figtha bombas zoom through the sky in an extended 3d action sequence to a clear homage to Danger Zone as they blast through the pitiful planetary defence force aircraft.  We cut back to the farm, there are explosions and screams and running peasants and the fiesty, precious, little, blond, white girl mugs for the camera mournfully.  She's running everywhere through the battle ignored by the Orks and guardsmen alike.

  We cut to space and there's a furious space battle that goes on for the full length of Leonard Cohen's Halleluja being sung by an all girls kindergarten choir.  We see the Ork commander savoring the coming victory when claxons announce the arrival of a Space Marine Battle Barge that turns the tide in the human's favour.  We see Thunderhawk Gunships (TM buy the toy with forty nine action sounds and phases) descending from the heavens.  The Black Templars roll out of the gunships and drop pods singing Love Is A Battle Field as a gregorian chant.  We cut to the little girl being stalked by a Snotling (TM buy the stuffy with concealed knife sheath don't ask where it came from just like in the movie!)  She manages to surprise the creature and hits it over the head with a brick.  A shadow falls over her and she grabs the Snotling's knife but it's only Brother Goodguy of the Black Templars.  He offers her a finger and she takes it in her tiny hand to a chorus of specially trained and mutilated seals.


  We get the bonding while killing aliens montage to a heart warming duet of Butterfly Kisses.  The brain damaged Snotling is established as the cute sidekick pet.
But there's a problem, the evil Chaplain Frolo doesn't believe that girls can be Space Marines.  He sings You're No Good.  But the battle rages on and they can't find anyone to take a little girl with a knife and a laspistol (TM NERF OR NOTHING) so she stays by Brother Goodguy's side through the ongoing war with the Orks.  The evil Chaplain Frollo cuts a deal with the Dark Eldar to get rid of the girl.  They capture her in a daring raid and she's imprisoned in the depths of their raider (TM with a hundred dying screams and whimpers) where she's taunted and tormented by a Homoculous and a Sybarite.  But in the dungeon she charms the dreadful Talos Engine with her beautiful stories and courage and in a daring moment of self sacrifice it helps her escape. 


The marines are fighting a desperate last stand against the orks and their Chaos Marine allies when she arrives just in time to save them with an army of Sisters of Battle we haven't seen once before in the whole movie.  They save the Black Templar Space Marines and the evil Chaplain Frolo confesses that he was wrong with his dying breath, there is at least one female space marine.  But she is wounded and also collapses, Brother Goodguy kneels beside her body.  We see her on the operating table, eyes open looking at an empty dreadnaught sarcophagus.  Cue a heavy metal rendition of "The Big Guns Never Rest." performed by ChatGPT using Metallica and Black Sabbath tracks for reference.

Just for frame of reference, here's the earlier attempt that went off the rails a bit.

http://www.uncouthsavage.com/uploads/1/3/3/2/133279619/brffmt.pdf

I've done a cover for it.  Nothing fancy but I'm adding it to the file.